title: Risk assessment: the emperor's new clothes?
abstract: This article reviews the risk assessment procedures and instruments that are being used by child protection agencies. Although supportive of the concept of risk assessment, the authors argue that all current instruments have major methodological deficiencies that limit the utility of such instruments as a means of predicting future abusive or neglectful behavior. The authors suggest how risk assessment decisions should be made at each stage of a child protection investigation.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University, CA.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wald
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Woolverton
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control; D002669:Child Welfare; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014481:United States